Partners
by PerfectCosima
Summary: Carmilla and Danny are partners for a Chemistry project.
1. Chapter 1

After the first all out brawl over who would be partnered with Laura Hollis, the chemistry professor had learned that picking groups beforehand would probably be wise. However that didn't stop the duo of rivals from glaring daggers at each other behind Laura's back while the prof announced the groups.

"Laura Hollis, and..."

They held their breaths in anticipation, knowing that they, along with LaFontaine, were the only ones left ungrouped.

"... LaFontaine!" The prof finished, and their excitement deflated like balloons. "That leaves Ms. Lawrence and Karnstein as the final group. I'll see you all next week, and we'll go over your preliminary results!"

"See you later, nerds," Laura teased as she and LaFontaine headed out of the classroom, leaving Carmilla and Danny sitting dejectedly in their seats.

"So." Carmilla said, finally looking over at Danny again. "Am I right in assuming that we're going to go work on this in my room and get all of our ideas from LaFontaine?"

"Only if you promise not to blatantly flirt with Laura in front of me," Danny replied, glaring at Carmilla.

"No such thing, Amazon," Carmilla said with a grin, standing up and holding out her hand to help Danny up from her chair. "Laura is mine. If you want her, you'll have to step up your game. I'd tell you to make her hot chocolate and help her with her dreams, but it seems that a certain creature of the night named _me _already has that covered."

* * *

><p>"I think we made a serious mistake."<p>

"You think so, carrot top? What clued you in? The fact that we're locked in my room together without Laura, or that when she left she took LaFontaine with her, and we have no idea how to do science?"

"You wanna go, dead girl?"

"I can take you."

They were at each other in seconds, the culmination of their anger and jealously ending with them tussling on Laura's bed, their fight completely serious until, in a spontaneous moment, their lips locked, and suddenly their ferocity was forgotten.

When they broke apart, Danny was breathing heavily, and although it didn't affect Carmilla the same way, she still looked shocked as she reached out and gently touched Danny's lip where it was bleeding slightly from their encounter.

"Sorry," she said, although the almost smug look on her face belied the apology. "Fangs."

"It's... yeah... fine... we're cool."

"So Laura...?"

"Yeah, let's keep this between us."

Carmilla nodded in agreement, sitting back down in front of the computer and picking up their discarded assignment, and reading it over again while Danny stood behind her, stuck in a moment of indecision that she broke by spinning the chair around.

Confused, Carmilla looked up and met Danny's gaze, reaching back and setting the paper down behind her when she saw the lusty look in her eyes, nodding mutely when the taller girl made her suggestion.

"Why don't we make this a secret worth keeping?"

* * *

><p>Later that night, Laura accessed the live feed of her room that she had set up, ready to laugh at the two girls that she had locked inside. However when she brought it up, she dropped her cereal bowl in shock.<p>

"What's wrong, Laura?" LaFontaine asked, looking over at their friend.

Laura returned the look, tears beginning to form in her eyes.

"I think I made a serious mistake."


	2. Chapter 2

The next morning, Laura entered the room, her eyes still red from a mixture of tears and the fact that she had sat up all night watching the events unfold rather than sleeping. Danny and Carmilla were sprawled out on Carmilla's bed, fully clothed and fast asleep, buried under Chemistry papers and books. The domesticity of the scene was like a dagger to her throat, slashing an end to the friendly greeting that she had planned, a sign of normalcy that she had mistakenly thought she'd be able to fake.

After a moment of hovering indecisively in the doorway, she headed over to her computer, choosing the less painful of the two options: waiting for them to wake up on their own, or swallowing her sadness and actually touching one of them. She had been scrolling tumblr for at least half an hour before she heard a groggy mumbling from behind her, the noises of a certain tall redhead waking from a deep slumber. Danny's sluggish stretching awakened the grumpy vampire, who groaned and pushed the intruder, almost causing Danny to fall off of the bed.

"Hey!" protested Danny, clutching desperately to the bed as all of their hard work from the night before slid to the ground. "Watch it, dead girl!" Although the moniker was the same as ever, her voice had a certain lilt, a playfulness, and rather than her usual angry response, Carmilla just laughed slightly, and was reaching to wrap her arms around the taller girl to stop her from falling when she noticed the new occupant of the room.

"Morning cupcake," Carmilla said, returning her arms to her sides and letting Danny fend for herself against the cruel throes of gravity.

"Hey," Laura mumbled, in a voice uncharacteristically soft, continuing to browse her dashboard.

Carmilla's face scrunched slightly in confusion, but she brushed it off as Danny finally made her way to her feet, gathering up her share of the papers, and, after a quick glance to make sure that the tiny girl was still intent on her computer monitor, brushed her hand over the taller girl's in a discrete farewell.

"Laura, I'll see you in class later, and Carmilla, call me tonight so we can set up another study session. "

"Sure think, partner," Carmilla replied, her mouth quirking upward in a half smirk at the nickname.

Danny waited a moment for Laura's reply, but none came, so she headed out the door. Carmilla's gaze followed her, making no attempt to hide the desire in her eyes.

"So, creampuff," Carmilla said, turning her attention to her roommate after Danny was gone. "How did you and Bio do on the Chem project? Did you get enough done to make it worthwhile for me to snoop through your bag while you're sleeping?"

"It went okay."

Carmilla sighed, disappointed that her banter had been shot down by the unusually sober girl. "So no super smart revelations in the field of Chemistry?" she teased, giving it another shot.

Laura didn't rise to the bait, instead deciding to ignore her roommate completely.

"Fine, then," Carmilla sulked, obviously peeved by the rejection of her attempt at conversing. She grabbed a book from the stack at the head of her bed and began to flip through the pages, but was unable to concentrate, her boredom leading back to trying to interact with Laura. "Hey sweetheart-"

"Would you just leave me alone?!" Laura sprang up from her seat and rushed to the bathroom, slamming and locking the door after her, leaving a stunned vampire sitting wide-eyed on her bed.

Carmilla got up and walked over to the bathroom door where she was greeted by the sound of muffled sobs. "Hey, hey, Laura..." She tried the handle fruitlessly before leaning up against the door and speaking into the crack. "What's wrong, cupcake? Did you have another nightmare last night? Did you learn something new about what's going on with all of this craziness?"

"Screw you and your nightmares," Laura snapped, her voice rough with emotion.

"Okay then," Carmilla muttered to herself, sighing. "Not a nightmare then. Come on, creampuff. Tell me what's wrong and maybe I can help. I'm not as useless as they all say."

**"What's wrong?!" **Laura's angry yell was in stark contrast to her previously soft sadness, again shocking the girl who was resting on the other side of the door. Her voice cracked as she went on, tears forming in her eyes as she spoke. "I _saw _you. My camera was on so that I could make sure you two weren't killing each other, and I saw you _fucking _her on your bed.

"Oh no," Carmilla breathed, falling back against the door, eyes closing as Laura went on.

"That's what's wrong, Carmilla. I try to get the two girls that I like to get along with each other, and this happens. And don't you think for a second that I didn't see the way you were looking at her this morning. My computer screen may not be a mirror, but it's shiny enough for me to get a good idea of what's going on behind me."

"Laura..." Carmilla's voice was breathy, pleading. "Just listen to me. We... we didn't mean for this to happen. We never wanted to hurt you, darling. Anything but that, please believe me."

"Don't you dare call me darling," Laura said, although there was no bite to her words, only a deep despair. "Go away. Get out of here, vampire. I really just don't want to be around you right now."

Carmilla was loath to leave Laura there, but she did as she was told, standing tall and heading away from the door.

"Please forgive me," she said, just loudly enough for Laura to hear. As soon as she was outside the dorm, she whipped out her phone and called Danny.

"Yeah."

"I know."

"We have to fix this."

"I'll be right there."


	3. Chapter 3

Carmilla and Danny met on the bench in front of the library, their previous ease gone.

"So she saw everything?"

"Not everything," Carmilla replied with a sigh, "but enough."

"Fuck."

They sat in silence, contemplating.

"We have to find a way to fix this," Danny echoed Carmilla's former words, although she didn't sound any more certain than the vampire had before.

"I don't want to go back to the way it was," Carmilla admitted, looking over and staring Danny straight in the eyes. "I don't want to go back to fighting over Laura, to hating you. I want this. I want us. I want her. I'm not even sure if I know exactly what I want, but I know that I can't live without her, and… and after last night I'm not sure if I can live without you either."

Danny smiled slightly, reaching her hand over and capturing Carmilla's. "Ditto, dead girl. So we agree?"

"Agree on what?"

"We go back to your dorm room, and we get her back. We fix this. Together."

* * *

><p>Laura could only ignore the persistent knocking on her door for so long. "What?" she called out from her bed, where she lay tangled in her blankets, two boxes, respectively filled with tissues and cookies, nestled beside her.<p>

"It's against dorm rules to keep your door locked."

Perry's reply was followed by the noise of a scuffle, LaF breathing heavily as they called out an apology. "Sorry, Laura. _Some_ people don't realize that things like pointing out rules can be a bit insensitive at times like this." They paused, waiting for a reply. "Come on, Laura. I have a bag full of candy and both seasons of Orphan Black. Just let me in."

A short silence followed before they heard Laura's muffled reply through the door. "On Blu-ray?"

LaF grinned, tasting victory. "Of course. I can't believe you'd think it wouldn't be."

Laura got up and unlocked the door, letting LaF and Perry come in on their own as she crawled back into her bed.

LaF heard Perry's gasp at the state of Laura's bed, covered in crumbs and used tissues, shooting her a glare that silenced her immediately.

"Okay, Laura," they said, holding out the DVDs. "You ready to drown your sadness in the ballpit of denial?"

* * *

><p>Carmilla didn't expect the door to be opened so quickly. Or that it would be Perry answering it.<p>

"Laura doesn't want to talk to you two right now," Perry said sharply, going out into the hallway and closing the door behind her.

Danny sighed, looking over at Carmilla with a frustrated expression, receiving the same one in return.

"I really didn't want to do this to you," Carmilla said to Perry, jumping back when the floor don pulled out a stake. "Whoa, there! That is not what I meant!"

Perry looked at her suspiciously. "Talk fast then, vampire."

Carmilla sighed. "Silas Student Rulebook statute 25, section three." She waited a moment as the meaning of what she said dawned on Perry.

"Roommates at Silas University have equal rights to their dorm rooms, and unless considered a physical danger to the occupants, cannot be barred from entering their assigned living spaces," Perry recited, her voice faltering as she realized the implications.

"So, floor don Perry," Carmilla said. "Are you going to let me into my room?"

* * *

><p>"Perry! I asked you to guard the door!" LaF glared at their girlfriend as they realized just who was following her into the room.<p>

"I'm sorry, okay! Carmilla used rules against me, LaFontaine! You know I can't break rules on purpose!"


End file.
